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Storyworld
Storyworld is where the Storypeople live. There are no houses, buildings, roadways, or communities in Storyworld; it primarily consists of simple places like forests, beaches, hills, mountains, valleys, fields, deserts, dunes, landscapes, and meadows. Although Storyworld is often happy and sunny, it can sometimes be found cloudy, dark, snowy, rainy, and bright. It looks very much like the middle of nowhere and is almost always quiet and empty. Locations Each segment takes place in at least one of more than five sections of Storyworld: Countryside Most segments take place in this field-like area. It mainly consists of pairs of trees, as well as a few mountains peering from behind. Mrs Lady once found a yellow jumper (known to be a sweater) hanging from one of the trees, and danced around the countryside until unravelling the entire jumper. Three orange trees were also sent to this space, and Mr Man struggled to collect all the oranges as the wind loosened them from each tree. Beach Storyworld's beach consists of two parts; a regular beach with a ledge behind it and a sand dune-covered space. Brother and Sister played with some squeaky, oversized socks on one spot on the beach, and Grandpappa and Little Dog Fido fought over a comfy armchair. On the sand dunes, Mr. Man and Grandpappa followed three sign posts in circles, Auntie found a "Treasure Chest" and became Queen Auntie, and Grandmamma put a heap of mail in a post box. Palm Tree Forest Here, Mr. Man, Grandpappa, and Auntie found a "Piggy Bank" and found three coins inside it, Brother and Sister found a pile of bananas and found a way to share them, thanks to a weighing scale, and Mr. Man & Grandpappa honked horns at each other. Snowy Forest This area, which is surrounded by a bunch of pine trees, is where the Storypeople go to when they play in the snow. Islands There are two islands in Storyworld. The most commonly seen one, which was where the Storypeople danced around to the music Mrs. Lady made with her pipe and Brother and Sister tried to get a bag out of a tree, is sandy and is flanked by lots of palm trees. Grandmamma, Brother and Sister, and Mr Man ringing bells in Bells, Grandpappa putting on slippers where Little Dog Fido steals one of them in Comfy Slippers, Grandpappa and Mr Man playing with the giant book in Book. In "Island", Brother and Sister were stranded on a small, grassy island occupied by five palm trees and a bunch of rocks, surrounded by animated water where they pull out the plug and drain it out. Behind the Scenes The different parts of Storyworld (which is officially referred to as a singular place) were actually four areas of two different countries - three in Spain, one in England: * Monte Mayor Golf Course (Benahavis, Málaga) * Gran Canaria, Las Palmas (the 'palm tree forest' segments were shot at Palm Gardens; segments taking place at the sand dunes were shot at one of the island's local beaches) * Torremolinos, Málaga * Pinewood, England Robin Stevens explains why the producers chose to shoot most of the Storyworld segments in Spain: The Storyworld sequences were filmed in Spain between Málaga and Tarifa, in temperatures of up to 104°F... ...or not! Why was Storyworld shot in Spain? It had nothing to do with Paëlla or snorkelling opportunities for the crew. We needed to shoot 104 stories in a year-and-a-half and it took a day-and-a-half to shoot each episode. 'Storyworld' is a happy sunny place. We worked 12 hours a day for 3 weeks at a time, and England just does not have that many sunny days in a year. So we were looking for a sunny storybook look and the quality of the light and simple backgrounds such as sand dunes were perfect... ...the only trouble is that sand dunes are of course made by wind! Also they can be a long way from the nearest parking lot, but we found a solution to this problem... The producers considered filming the "snowy" episodes in Switzerland, but this was turned down because of its very frigid weather and a regular day there being too short to shoot an episode during: For the snowy episodes of Storyworld, Switzerland was considered as a location, but, because of the combination of extreme cold and a very short shooting day, it was rejected. So in the middle of a rare British heat wave these actors are wearing thermals! We used artificial snow made from finely shredded (biodegradable) paper mixed with water. This basically made papier-mâché which took quite some time to get off in the shower! Most, if not all, of the presents the children give the Storypeople were made by Dave Hope. Although a typical Storyworld sequence's plot is very simple, many of the props were either very big or had certain aspects exaggerated to move the plot forward: The Storyworld stories are deceptively simple and use a range of everyday objects, all of which need to be recognisable/recognizable but are exaggerated in some way. So Storyworld is full of very large socks, very bouncy balls and very squeaky see-saws. The design team had their work cut out. They had huge props to move about and get working in remote locations. It took a day to build these giant orange trees and this sketch was cancelled three times due to high winds! When filming episodes that took place on the beach, the crew was aware that their camera would merely sink in coarse sand, but fine sand would damage it. On average, there would be 25 people attending the shoot: The crew all became experts in the different types of sand. The camera sinks in coarse sand, but fine sand gets inside our equipment and wrecks it. And we have probably swept more beaches than anyone. The crew averaged 25 people, some of whom were Spanish, which gave the shoot an international flavour. This was great for an international programme like ''Boohbah and we became a close-knit working community with an excellent team spirit working together against the odds...winds, herds of goats, sandstorms and even a giant inflatable banana being towed behind a speed boat through our shot. But nothing could stop us.'' Gallery Category:Storyworld Category:Location